OK, I'm probably asking a stupid question now that I'm about to become a Roamio Plus newbie...

During my various areas of research on the boards I occasionally come across posts were people talk about having two Roamio's for their home. If a Roamio Plus (like I'm planning to get) has 6 tuners, why would you need two of them, unless you plan on watching/recording more than 6 shows at once. Is is that simple?
I plan on a Roamio plus and 4 mini's? Would there be any reason for me to consider two Roamio's and 3 mini's? Straighten me out!

If money is no issue there is a case for more DVRs in a household where the various users watch very different content and each user has their own TV. Much easier to just manage your own content and let the kids and/or spouse manage there own on a different DVR.

Also some people might like to have a DVR that can do OTA so again if money is no issue having a Roamio Plus/Pro for cable and a base Roamio for OTA would be useful for some people.

I'm not getting a second Roamio, but I kept a Premiere XL4. We don't need 10 tuners, but until Tivo comes up with user profiles or some other kind of "mine", "yours", and "Little Johnny's" folder system to keep things organized, I prefer to have all of my sister's and her kid's stuff on a separate box.

But I already had the box, so I'm not spending much more money by keeping it (except the cablecard fee).

Yep we're in the same boat. I bought a Roamio for my shows and all the shows we watch together and gave her my old XL4 for all her crap. We don't actually need 10 tuners, but until there is some sort of profile system we can't share. Even then we may not be able to because my wife is adamant about having that clock back door* turned on and I hate it. We bought a Premiere together once a long time ago and fought about that stupid clock all the time. It got so bad that I ended up buying her out just so I could leave the clock off all the time.

*SPS9S enables a little clock in the upper left corner that shows the current time and your current position in the show

Yep we're in the same boat. I bought a Roamio for my shows and all the shows we watch together and gave her my old XL4 for all her crap. We don't actually need 10 tuners, but until there is some sort of profile system we can't share. Even then we may not be able to because my wife is adamant about having that clock back door* turned on and I hate it. We bought a Premiere together once a long time ago and fought about that stupid clock all the time. It got so bad that I ended up buying her out just so I could leave the clock off all the time.

*SPS9S enables a little clock in the upper left corner that shows the current time and your current position in the show

So has there been any real talk about a profile environment for this very reason or is this on a wish list?

It is not a joke at all. I don't want all the crap my wife likes to watch on my Tivo such as Keeping Up with the Kardashians or Dance Moms is another example.

And I thought my wife was the only one! My box is loaded with Orange County, NJ, Atlanta housewifes and every cooking show on TV. Now she wonders why the new Roamio is in the living room and her old verizon 2 tuner piece of crap is in the bedroom.

At CEDIA I asked about profiles/separate folders for individual family members. I was told by one of the TiVo booth people that it was looked at but that it was considered too complicated for most folks to figure out.

Of course, most of us here would have no problem with this feature, but TiVo is also catering to people who are a lot less technologically oriented, so I can see their point of view.

Another point to consider. You can't pull recordings from pyTivo to a mini.

This is what is causing me to buy roamios instead of minis. If Minis could stream content from a home-server, things would be very different. :-)

Argh. that's close to a deal breaker, maybe not quite, but close, for me. I have a lot of media content and use PlayOn as my media server. So if I want to watch my media, I have to download it first to the Roamio? Can't I just download everything from my media server to my Roamio and delete it from there when I watch it?

I'm slowly replacing my four Series 3 Tivos now, and have gone with Minis to replace two of them. 7 months ago I replaced two TivoHDs with a Premiere XL4 (not knowing the Roamio was around the corner!) and a Mini. Last night I replaced my main S3 and a TiVO HD with a Roamio Pro and a Mini. Both Minis are in rooms that don't need their own dedicated DVRs, but I can access everything in the house.

During my various areas of research on the boards I occasionally come across posts were people talk about having two Roamio's for their home. If a Roamio Plus (like I'm planning to get) has 6 tuners, why would you need two of them, unless you plan on watching/recording more than 6 shows at once. Is is that simple?

6 Tuners does not *necessarily* really mean 6 "shows at once", as you'll likely find out. Unless you're one who doesn't care about missing the end/beginning of shows.

You will have to add 'padding' to a lot of shows (esp network shows, and a few cable channels that do it for all of their shows). That is, make the season pass start a minute early and/or end a minute late.

That "eats up" your tuners.

Plus, if you have multiple people in the household, 6 tuners isn't that much either.

I have a premiere 4 and Tivo HD, so the equivalent in tuners to a roamio pro. I want to consolidate to one device (not two SP lists), but still once in a while end up with a clipped show because of not enough tuners.

Tivos *could* handle this automagically in most cases (if you were recording abutting shows on the same network), but they don't.

Just to add to the discussion, until there are profiles, I don't want my kids shows filling up the now playing list on the "adult" TiVo. Considering the base Roamio is only $100 more than a mini, it's not a big deal to me.

Just to add to the discussion, until there are profiles, I don't want my kids shows filling up the now playing list on the "adult" TiVo. Considering the base Roamio is only $100 more than a mini, it's not a big deal to me.

Joe

But keep in mind the Lifetime Service cost is 2-3 times as much on a full fledged TiVo than a mini.

Ok, I made the complete switch: one Roamio Pro and 3 Minis, and I couldn't be happier. I'm sending back 3 CableCards and canceling the monthly service on the Premiere.

The "filling up" argument for me doesn't exist. I consolidated all the recordings from 2 Tivo HDs and a Premiere 4 onto the Roamio, added a bunch more movies, and I'm still only at 18% of capacity. It's got a crazy amount of space. Still wish we had folders, though!

OK, now I understand. Since it's just myself and my partner, with same/similar tastes, I likely don't need a second DVR. Thanks for the examples.

hey Marklyn-

You may want to edit your signature- if you get a 3GB upgrade in your Roamio, it won't hold much!

__________________Tivo Fanatic since '99!

Roamio Pro
Premiere Elite4
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His and Hers DVRs. And a 3rd for the kids. That's always been the standard here, and life is good with everyone doing their own thing, managing their playlists as they like, and plenty of storage. Also allows for different styles of playlist management ... as an example, I watch/delete, other family members watch/keep forever until space needed.

His and Hers DVRs. And a 3rd for the kids. That's always been the standard here, and life is good with everyone doing their own thing, managing their playlists as they like, and plenty of storage. Also allows for different styles of playlist management ... as an example, I watch/delete, other family members watch/keep forever until space needed.

Just so I'm clear. If you have two Tivo's then you can see what's recorded on all connected Tivo's from either one, right?
Also, Is it possible to see all of the season passes (on both Roamio's) from one of them or do you need to review on each one separately?
If you can also do both of these things online, that is ok too.
I'm trying to avoid the situation I have now, with my 3 DirecTV DVR's, I can see all playlists combined from any one, but I have to go to each one and see what's set up in the season passes, which is a pain. Having a way to see playlists and season passes for all connected machines would be great if it works that way.

Just so I'm clear. If you have two Tivo's then you can see what's recorded on all connected Tivo's from either one, right?
Also, Is it possible to see all of the season passes (on both Roamio's) from one of them or do you need to review on each one separately?
If you can also do both of these things online, that is ok too.
I'm trying to avoid the situation I have now, with my 3 DirecTV DVR's, I can see all playlists combined from any one, but I have to go to each one and see what's set up in the season passes, which is a pain. Having a way to see playlists and season passes for all connected machines would be great if it works that way.

The 2 Roamios will be able to see each other on the network. This will allow you to view the recordings on the other Roamio and stream the recording as well. Season passes are not shared and cannot be viewed from the other Roamio. They can be viewed and managed online or via the smartphone/tablet apps (iOS, Android). The same apps can also view the recording listing and manage recordings as well. In all cases, online, via the apps, or on the Roamios, the listings are separate for each Tivo. It is never one combined listing of multiple Tivos. The one exception I can think of is in the online Season Pass manager, if you get to the step to prepare to copy Season Passes, it's possible to have it list all Season Passes from 2 Tivos in a 2 column format.

I think the most obvious reason has been missed if I skimmed the answers properly. Two units means no SINGLE POINT FAILURE.

I've had TiVos since 1999 and very one of them eventually needed a new hard drive. I'm not willing to lose TV while I sort out the problems. So I have two units as well as DTV unit that I have for the NFL/MLB but could use in a pinch.